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The Value of Catechism

From First Thoughts

Michael Ives maintains a blog called “West Port Experiment.” It caught my eye some time back because of the emphasis on parish ministry. The title of his blog comes from the work of Dr. Thomas Chalmers, who tried to implement a parish model of church ministry in one of the worst slums of . . . . Continue Reading »

The God Who Provides

From First Thoughts

The beginning of a New Year is a time to reflect on God’s kindness and goodness to us, but we are often concerned and fearful about the future. What will happen this year? Will we make it through another trial? Can we survive another hard year?In the face of an uncertain future, our hope as . . . . Continue Reading »

The Gospel and the Whole Christ

From First Thoughts

With some of the discussion regarding the gospel, I wanted to point out a recent post by Mark Jones titled “The Gospel and Sanctification.” Mark did his doctoral work on the Puritan Thomas Goodwin, so some of the essay references Goodwin’s work regarding the nature of the gospel. . . . . Continue Reading »

The Counter-Cultural Church

From First Thoughts

Ken Myers, host of Mars Hill Audio Journal, was recently interviewed on the podcast Ordinary Means about the topic of culture and the church. During the interview, Myers talked about different ways that the church must be counter-cultural in our current cultural environment. He outlined five main . . . . Continue Reading »